Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 30, 1993 TAG: 9305300011
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: George Kegley
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A green youth from Wythe County began recording the daily happenings of post-World War II Roanoke Valley and Western Virginia in the fall of 1949.
That job evolved into a sometimes hectic attempt to report business news in a more aggressive world where companies swallow others, downsizing becomes "rightsizing" and Virginians ship their products to Singapore and Russia.
After a decade of routine coverage of school boards, conventions, organizational activities and work in the Salem bureau, the pace quickened when American Viscose Corp. closed its plant on a hot summer day in 1958. A scramble for jobs began.
During more than 30 years of following the Norfolk and Western Railway, an interesting cycle began with a NW-Virginian Railway merger hearing before the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington. NW's acquisition of the Virginian led to many more ICC hearings and the 1964 merger of the Nickel Plate, Wabash and smaller lines into NW. A later NW-Chesapeake & Ohio merger plan was derailed by the Penn Central bankruptcy.
But the NW-C&O merger proposal went far enough for serious consideration of Roanoke as a headquarters city. This reporter went to Cleveland, C&O's base, for reaction to rumors that a merged NW-C&O might have its offices in Roanoke. The general comment was "Where's Roanoke?" Soon afterward, Ohio Gov. James Rhodes flew to Roanoke to beg NW directors to consider Cleveland as home of the merged lines.
Stuart Saunders of Roanoke, then NW president and a key player in the rail merger movement, was one of the biggest newsmakers in those days. His mind worked so quickly that he supplied an answer before reporters completed the question. Once asked to react to a sensitive rail matter, Saunders said, "No comment, George, and don't you say that I said no comment."
The 1960s decade was a time of busy regulatory activity requiring many trips to Washington. Coverage of rail mergers was interspersed with the longtime effort of Appalachian Power Co. to win Federal Power Commission approval of its planned Blue Ridge Dam project in Grayson County.
The dam was killed by major environmental opposition from North Carolina to the Pacific Northwest. The dams were blocked in the House of Representatives and Senate when part of the New River was declared a wild and scenic waterway. Feelings were high in congressional committees and on the floor of both houses.
In 1976, the newspaper placed an ad in Editor & Publisher, a trade magazine, saying that George Kegley had covered one story, the Blue Ridge Dam, for 14 years. During a press tour of the dam site, near Independence, a Winston-Salem, N.C., television newswoman mistook this reporter for a member of the Federal Power Commission.
In another regulatory forum, James J. Saxon, then federal controller of the currency, came to Roanoke to conduct a hearing on a consolidation plan of the old First National Exchange and Colonial-American National banks, one of the first modern-day bank merger proposals. Saxon listened for a full day but the merger died quickly.
During another Washington trip the story was that the International Union of Electrical Workers local at Salem's General Electric Co. plant lost a U.S. Supreme Court suit for payment of sickness benefits during pregnancy. But the IUE won that right from Congress.
The 1978 strike by NW clerks became a national story and a long ordeal for both the union and management. Many pertinent bits of information were left for a reporter by a "deep throat" source, who was never identified.
An Association of American Railroads official gave a reporter inaccurate information about Supreme Court action in the strike and the Roanoke Times story was picked up by the Associated Press and printed in the Washington Post. A court press officer said Chief Justice Warren Burger was disturbed at breakfast when he read a Post story about a court action that had never happened.
The unsuccessful effort of the Robert Mathison family to gain control of Rowe Furniture Corp. in Salem caused an expensive proxy fight both in and out of court. Mathison, who was a son-in-law of the company founder, and his family worked very hard but Rowe management won the day.
Labor strikes required a lot of late night hours and weekends to follow the complex and emotional issues. Disagreement over wages and working conditions led to strikes at ITT, Mohawk Rubber (now Yokohama Tire Corp.), Greyhound, Piedmont Airlines (now USAir Group), General Electric, NW (now Norfolk Southern Corp.) and by air traffic controllers.
The merger mania of the 1980s brought takeovers of many Western Virginia companies, usually a name change and often a reduction in employment.
Feature stories on companies and their employees, reports of stockholder meetings, business promotions and resignations, company locations, expansions and closings, layoffs and new processes competed for space on the business pages.
Reporters often handle general assignments in addition to their specialties. Long ago, there were such varied jobs as interviews with Van Cliburn and Elvis Presley, a report on a New York Philharmonic Orchestra concert and coverage of major events on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Queen Elizabeth's visit to the University of Virginia grounds.
But reporters and business writers have to stop somewhere. Now there should be time for four grandchildren and other family members, historical and church projects, reading and walking mountain trails. That's all.
George Kegley has been business editor of the Roanoke Times & World-News. He has covered economic development and regional industry.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB